thankfully, it hasn’t taken long for Medved to start his rebuild. It started with a commitment on Tuesday from Colorado State forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, who played under Medved for his lone season with the Rams.

Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball adds transfer commit BJ Omot (Cal)

Then on Wednesday, the Gophers received another commitment out of the transfer portal, Mankato’s own BJ Omot, who played the first two seasons of his college career at the University of North Dakota, before transfering to the University of California for what was supposed to be his junior season. More on that momentarily.

HO〽️E. pic.twitter.com/InTKxFakmQ

— Bajedo Omot (BJ) (@omot_bajedo) April 2, 2025

As a Fighting Hawk, Omot averaged 19 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 blocks per game. Last year, he transferred to Cal, where he was averaging over 10 points per game… before he suffered a mysterious “upper body extremity injury” that ended his season after only four games played.

Related: Medved, Gophers Offer Top High School Recruit in Minnesota

In 2025-26, he lands back in his home state of Minnesota, and he is expected to be 100% long before the season starts, according to reports that came out at the time of the injury. The Mankato East high school grad first entered the transfer portal on March 23. Prior to his Gophers commitment, Omot heard from Washington, OK State and Iowa, among others.

BJ Omot 🇸🇸🇪🇹 | 6'8 W | Cal Berkeley pic.twitter.com/TOYwRVIqbn

— So Elite Basketball (@SoeliteBBall) November 28, 2024

How much should we expect out of Omot?

As you can see from the video above, there really isn’t anything the slender 6’8″ 175 lb two-way talent can’t do, especially when he finds his shot. While BJ isn’t the most accurate three point shooter (29% in his college career), he isn’t afraid to hoist them up, averaging 5.1 threes per game,in 69 total games between UND and Cal.

When Omot’s season ending announcement was made back in January, Cal Bears head coach (and Timberwolves legend) Mark Madsen called the loss a “devastating blow to our team”. He went on to to describe BJ as “an elite on-ball perimeter defender”.

“BJ Omot is out for the season, and it’s a devastating blow to our team,” Madsen said Monday. “He’s an elite on-ball perimeter defender. We got this indication on this medical opinion some time last week, and so BJ Omot is out for the season. Other guys are going to have to step up.

It’s not clear what Omot’s specific injury is, but Madsen said Omot, a junior who should be able to get this season back as a medical redshirt, will be 100% well before the start of next season.

Sports Illustrated

Get your calendars out Gopher Football fans! Three Rose Bowls and 4 National Championships from now, the Gophers will play two non-conference games vs the California Golden Bears.

#Gophers add home-and-home series with Cal. https://t.co/zoJF8saEGk pic.twitter.com/0pXEGmHZB6

— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) February 11, 2020

This will be the seventh all-time meeting between the two schools, with Cal holding a 4-2 advantage in the series. The teams last met in 2009 at TCF Bank Stadium and Minnesota’s last win in the series was a 32-23 home triumph in 1987.

GopherSports.com

Before the national dominance shown by Gopher football in the late-1930’s and 40’s under Bernie Bearman, the Cal Golden Bears were running the college scene in the early 20’s under Andy Smith.

From 1920 to 1958, Cal played in 8 Rose Bowls but while the Gophers were dominating the Early Big Ten, the Rose Bowl didn’t include a team from our historic conference.

The Pac-12, or PCC (Pacific Coast Conference) back then, has always been a part of the Rose Bowl festivities but the Big Ten didn’t become a regular participant until 1947, when Illinois introduced the two new rival conferences by embarrassing UCLA, 45-14.

Anyway, the Bears have never won the PAC-12, were co-champions of the PAC-10 once back in 2006, and co-champions of the PAC-8 once in 1975. They haven’t won the conference outright since 1958, when they were PCC Champions.

The Golden Bears haven’t won 10 games since that co-PAC-12 championship in 2006 but they’ve been trending gradually up since hiring Justin Wilcox back in 2017.

They finished 5-7 in year 1, before flipping the script to 7-6 in year 2, and then improving to 8-5 in year 3. If Wilcox continues on this path, Cal and the Gophers might be meeting in the Rose Bowl before these non-conference regular season matchups are set to take place in 2028-29.

via GIPHY

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan